I got up early to watch the sunrise over the gulf waters. I quick tied on my shoes, grabbed my camera and headed east along the Ft. Walton shore toward the pier to capture the glowing salmon-colored sun rise above the clouds sitting on the horizon that morning. It was gorgeous. As I walked toward the pier, a woman came out of her condo and started walking behind me. I noticed she stopped every time I did so she didn't walk into the photo I was taking. Since we were keeping pace with each other, we started talking. She'd been coming to the beach there from Michigan for 30 years and had many tips on what to see and do in the area.
After walking and talking awhile, I pointed to the hotels and condos along the beach and asked: "Is there a building code stipulating that six to seven stories is as high as they can be built? They're all the same height." She said she didn't know then said, "Sometimes you'll see a crane on the beach."
Now, since we'd just been speaking about the buildings on the seashore, I thought she was talking about mechanical cranes for construction and heavy lifting. Then she continued with her sentence pointing to a building to my left ... "They fly over from the Gulfarium right there." The Gulfarium is a facility for rehabilitating injured marine animals. They also do dolphin and seal shows.
I thought it was funny that until she completed her sentence I was thinking of a mechanical crane. Out of context, I was thinking of the completely wrong thing and the thought of it flying was pretty comical to me.
The same is true of taking Scripture out of context. So often people will take one verse out of Scripture and run with it, forgetting to read what is written before or after. For example I had an atheist youth tell me Christians were murderers breaking the Ten Commandments anytime we kill an animal for food based on Isaiah 66:3 which reads: "Whoever slaughters an ox is like one who kills a human being." The youth took this verse out of context. This section of Scripture is reminding us to be humble and reverent before the Lord, otherwise our outward rituals are just for show and even an abomination to our Father. Likewise, often women balk at the "Be submissive to your husbands" verse in Ephesians 5:22 forgetting that just one verse before Paul says, "Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ." He even continues on to instruct husbands to love their wives like their own bodies and as Christ loves the church, willing to die for it. Within context, the verse makes divine sense for an ideal marriage of unconditional love.
We need to be careful as Christians to not take what someone tells us is in Scripture until we look it up ourselves and more importantly read what comes before and after it to see what the Holy Spirit is instructing here. Otherwise we could be missing the point.
Imagine a mechanical crane flying over the gulf ... ludicrous, yes, and sure doesn't have the same grace at all as the waterfowl. Likewise, neither can a verse of Scripture when taken out of context. It's often misconstrued ... and is certainly without the same Grace.
